


A Brief Recess

by ShutUpandPull



Category: Castle
Genre: AU, Caskett, F/M, Humor, Romance, Sequel
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-29
Updated: 2019-09-23
Packaged: 2020-09-30 05:36:23
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 13,609
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20441495
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ShutUpandPull/pseuds/ShutUpandPull
Summary: A follow-up piece to Objections Overruled: When an overworked Kate suggests to Rick they spend a weekend away for some quality time alone, little does she know what her suggested destination has in store for them, and in more ways than one.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> For the few that so sweetly approached and requested a bit more of these two, thank you for sharing your enjoyment of them with me. It thrills me that you’ve come to care for them as much as I do.

A bead of sweat zigzagged down the back of Kate’s neck as she stood there in the doorway of Rick’s early-morning bedroom, her heart thumping not from the miles on the treadmill she’d just bitterly fed it, but from the sight of his form stretched out beneath the sheets where she’d left him, after too many days and nights without.

It’d been five months of it--five months of _a lot_ of it--yet her body still craved his with the force of an ignited rocket at the moment of launch. Sometimes, when he’d call her in the middle of a day, she’d unconsciously cross her legs at the sound of his voice, like there was some secret to be kept hidden between them where he so often lived, like he was some famed artist and she was safeguarding his treasured canvas.

Never before or with such intensity had she wanted a man; never before had a man taken such smug delight in knowing it.

“I can hear you panting from all the way over here, Counselor,” he croaked without shifting a hair. “You’d make a terrible stalker.”

Kate braced a shoulder against the doorjamb, banished the beginnings of a grin with a nip of her lip. “It wouldn’t hurt you to get your ass down there into the gym every once in a while, you know. I’m sure you’re paying a fortune for it.”

He was put together deliciously. She chose to set aside that fact for her own selfish purposes.

That had him swiftly rolled and perched on his elbow. “If the lady is displeased with the gentleman’s physique and his regimen for its upkeep, perhaps she should slide her gripes on over here and climb on. He’ll be happy to remind her how skilled he is at burning calories in other creative ways.”

Given the hour, it was undoubtedly more physiology than arousal, she knew. Nonetheless, that Kate could make out the outline of his length, hard beneath the sheets, from where she stood had her sparked, and though time wasn’t her friend that morning, she was well acquainted with the charity of his… skill and the benefit its demonstration could have on her endurance in facing the craze of her day ahead.

She took a step toward the bed, lifted her running tank over her head and let it fall to the floor. “He and his ways are going to have to be quick about it.” Her eyes carved a deliberate path from his all the way down to the prize she was about to collect. “It doesn’t look like that’ll be a problem. The gentlemen seem to have gotten a head start.”

Rick tossed off the covers and gave the unoccupied spot on the mattress an energetic swat. “Ain’t science grand? Get over here with those ab muscles of yours. I want to trace them with my tongue for breakfast.” There was no need for him to ask twice. She jumped in beside him in a blink. “Happy five-monthiversary,” he said following a kiss that testified to just how happy he was. “Are you ready for your present?”

Kate reached for his hand, slid it beneath the waistband of her shorts because she wanted to show more than tell, and when he hummed against her neck his pleasure in the slick finding, the grin she’d earlier done away with broke out wide across her face.

**xxxx**

“You were pretty dirty this morning,” Rick called to her through the shower’s fogged wall of glass as he stood at the sink and dragged a razor across his jaw. “When I’m finished shaving, you want me to climb in there and show you how to maximize lather effectiveness?”

“I got up at 5:30 a.m. and sprinted three miles, Billboard Boy. What’d you do?”

He set his Schick on the marble vanity, took three steps backward until he was able to tug open the door that had Kate boxed in. “That’s not what I meant,” he said with an overdone wink, and before he knew it found himself beneath the spray with her, having been yanked inside by the towel he had draped around his neck.

“Dammit, I can’t be late today. You know that.” In a breath, the towel was gone, chucked over the glass to the tile below. “Why do you have to be so--”

“Ah-ah, I’d think carefully about how that sentence ends, Counselor.” He took her by the waist and rotated their positions so the water would roll down over her skin in lazy ropes, instead. He found that arrangement far more pleasing. “I know I’ve already given you the gift of ecstasy for our anniversary, but there’s still a little something more, so you really should be nice to me.”

He’d been the one to bring it to her attention the night before that their shared days had amounted to a collection worthy of note, but mingled with her surprise in and appreciation of his recognition of it had been a swirl of guilt she hadn’t voiced.

Their time of late had largely been spent apart, not by choice, but by a bombardment of professional obligation--hers mainly.

Not to say Kate wasn’t grateful for the work or up to the task. Worn thin as she often was, hers was the only name engraved on the gold shingle that hung at her office’s front door. Keeping the practice alive was her responsibility alone, and it was the successful realization of that dream that her passion employed as fuel to press her onward, despite the odds against its survival in a field with competition popping up like a game of Whac-A-Mole.

But now another passion had hold of her, one she was into too deep to even contemplate giving it up to appease the other. There was commitment, and with it love, and she didn’t want to give Rick any reason to feel doubt about that.

It wasn’t the time to share it, though.

Kate dipped back and came up again, pushed her fingers through her wet hair. “For your information, what I was going to say was incredibly nice.” Those same fingers walked the curves of his waist and settled beneath the cheeks of his ass. “Since you interrupted me, I guess you won’t be hearing it. What a shame for you.”

She gave him a simultaneous pinch on each side and slid by him, his drenched boxers flying through the open door and hitting her in the head as she toweled off.

**xxxx**

It was bad enough that it was Monday, even worse that it was a Monday crammed with back-to-back-to-back appointments. She was already working on a way to make her trusted aid, Morgan, pay dearly for that.

Already on her second fix of caffeine of the morning, Kate’s bleary eyes broke from the printout of her schedule when Morgan wandered in and plopped down in the chair in front of her.

“So, you and Rick did it this morning, huh?” she said with unsettling confidence. “I can’t do sex in the morning. Or with the lights on.” She sipped casually from the mug she carried in with her. “We’re going to be busy today. You look thrilled about it.”

Christ. Kate didn’t even know where to start.

“I should fire you for saddling me with all of this on a Monday. I _could_ fire you for the other thing. Since when is my sex life any of your business? And how did you even…?”

“Um, since you actually decided to get one?” Morgan snickered around another sip. “Do you honestly think I can’t tell when you two have gotten your thing on--or off, more importantly? I’ve seen you almost every morning for three years. Trust me. It’s super obvious. Jeez, if it bothers you to hear that, I won’t even bring up what I can hear coming from this office when the he visits and you close the door.”

Okay, yes, she and Rick, on a few occasions, had indulged in some less than professional office activity, and though her cheeks now flashed pink with its verbal acknowledgement, she regretted none of it. In fact, she actually thought they were due another round. Perhaps when the office was otherwise vacant.

“Why don’t you keep the noticing to yourself, from now on. I know we’re friends, but that doesn’t mean we have to talk about everything, and, you’re sort of creeping me out.”

Morgan flipped her mouth into a frown. “Fine, but let me just say it’s kind of mean of you to withhold the sexy goods from those of us forced to live vicariously, especially when the sexy goods involve a man as beautiful as yours.”

God, he was beautiful, Kate thought. But that wasn’t the point.

“Mean of me? Does this mean you won’t play with me in the sandbox at recess?” Kate plucked her coffee cup from the desk and leaned back in her chair. “You’re even more dramatic than he is, and that’s not easily accomplished. How about you go out to your desk and make sure we have everything lined up for these client meetings. Clearly you could use the distraction, and I could really do without yours right now.”

Morgan got up without a fight, set off in retreat. “You know,” she turned back to say, “for someone who got laid this morning, it sure hasn’t relaxed you any.”

“Just get outta here. Buzz me when Rebecca shows up.”

Yeah, Kate really hated Mondays.

**xxxx**

“It’s been a zoo around here, too,” Rick commiserated when they spoke by phone that afternoon. It had become a thing they always did--a sweet routine. No matter how busy they were, no matter how many directions they were being pulled, they always made time to find one another, if only for a minute or two. “Hearing your voice is just what I needed.”

“Were you guys able to make any headway? How’s he been today?”

Rick had taken on a high-profile client as a favor to a friend with a scheduling conflict, and acrimonious didn’t even begin to scratch the surface of that nightmare of a divorce battle.

It was rather like _The War of the Roses_, it turned out--quite a surprise for Rick, that not unimportant tidbit having been left out ahead of his agreed involvement--where neither husband nor wife had any interest in or intention of relinquishing their respective stakes in the palatial Greenwich home they’d built together in happier times. Through it all, they still continued to live under the same luxury-shingle roof.

Given the number of hours Rick had already logged with the husband of the pair, how little he imagined there could ever have existed happier times. A bigger prick he wasn’t sure he’d ever met, and though he was fighting tooth and nail for him, as he did for all his clients--prick or otherwise--part of him was secretly pulling for the wife.

“I wish someone had been keeping track of the number of times I’ve used the word _douche _over the past month. I swear I could secure a page in Guinness. He actually told my assistant today that the coffee she brought him was too beige and, therefore, too boring to drink. I caught Nora’s face afterward. She was about two seconds away from hurling it at him, cup included.”

“As I recall, you hurled a pair of your wet underwear at me this morning. The two of you make a nice team.”

“You know I would’ve just given them to you if you’d asked,” he quipped to a puff of a giggle. “Since you brought them up, will there be more flying underwear--preferably yours--in the cards tonight after we have dinner?”

In that moment, there was nothing Kate wanted more than to spend their anniversary night with him, however silly and simple the recognition of five months together might seem to some. But…

“Rick, I can’t tonight, not since I managed to sign both of those new clients today. I have to get some work done on their stuff.”

His disappointment screamed into the silence he briefly let hang between them. “I guess that’ll teach me to send customers to opponents.” He’d quietly recommended her, and suddenly remembered he wasn’t going to let her in on that for fear she might look upon the gesture the wrong way. “Shit. You didn’t know that part. I gave your name to Rebecca through Nora. They’re friends, and I didn’t want to handle her myself, in case, I don’t know, something went sideways. Nora works miracles around here. I can’t risk losing her.”

“You thought I’d be upset about it, that I’d think you were throwing small-time Kate Beckett your scraps.”

“Honestly, that possibility did cross my mind. I promise you it wasn’t that, at all. I learned how capable and how hungry you were the first time I met you, and you haven’t let me forget it since. I know you don’t need me for that. I will admit I do hope you need me for other things, though. I do hope.”

There were times when he did things, when he said things that Kate felt grateful to be sitting down for.

It dizzied her to think about how none of it might’ve ever been. Had he not shown up at that legal conference, had she walked out of the convention center and gotten into her car instead of reluctantly going with him to the bar, had James Sullivan known another kid from school who turned out to be some hotshot lawyer, Richard Castle would still just be a face on a billboard that drove her mad.

“I do,” she confessed with softness. “And I’m not upset. I am sorry, though. I know there hasn’t been a lot of time lately. Maybe we can try to do a weekend away when things quiet down--_if_ things quiet down.”

“We’ll find a way to do a weekend. Hey, I actually have to run. I’m doing a staff meeting here in a few with all the troops. Are we still good for dinner at 7 p.m.?” Kate confirmed with but a sound. “You’re always just what I need,” he told her again. “I’ll see you tonight.”

“See you tonight,” she echoed.

It dizzied her to think about it.


	2. Chapter 2

Rick waited to slide the small, pink envelope from the inside pocket of his jacket until after they finished with dinner, until their server disappeared to the kitchen to dig up the slice of espresso cheesecake he’d used his lawyerly finesse to convince Kate to indulge in.

“What is that?” she asked when the gentle curve of his lips offered her no choice. “Did you get invited to little Suzie’s birthday party?”

He could’ve lobbed back, but instead let it go by.

“You’re the sexiest mocker I’ve ever met.” He placed the envelope in front of her. “Not that you’ll need it, but what comes of this will help you preserve that standing. I told you this morning there was a little something more, and even though you were late to our anniversary feast, I decided you still deserve it. So do I, if you ask me.”

It truly had been a feast. Kate felt like she’d eaten enough for three, a condition that, somehow, had still left her no match for Rick and his silver tongue when dessert had been offered.

She picked the pink package up off the table, began to tear at the flap on the back but stopped. “I feel bad that I didn’t… If I’d realized, I would’ve gotten you something, too.”

“Please, don’t.” Seated beside her, he reached over and brushed his fingers across her arm. “There is nothing I want more than you, Counselor. You’re here. I already have everything.”

Her legs crossed behind the drape of the tablecloth. He was a goddamn living, breathing vibrator, and he didn’t even need to touch her to make her body scream.

“I’ll think of something,” she said and meant it, despite his insistence.

Returning her hands to busy, she found a gift certificate for her favorite lingerie shop tucked inside, one Rick had become quite familiar with over their months together, so much so that the ladies who worked there all knew exactly why and for whom he’d stop in for a visit. His ego got off on that, no doubt.

Kate wasn’t one for fuss, he’d learned. Being a man who enjoyed earning his money so he could spend it, that continued to be a challenging pill for him to swallow, and how worthy she was of beautiful things, being one such thing herself. But he’d also discovered ways around, found a few side doors that he was able to slip in through, and with welcome surprise.

Expensive lingerie was just such a door.

“I’m thinking maybe something in purple.” He made like the thought just hit, but there’d been deliberation. “Purple on a woman with green eyes is…” He sighed reverently.

“If only women wore panties on their heads,” she sassed. “I do like purple, though. I’ll consider it.” She folded the card back inside, crooked a finger, summoned him to lean in close. “We’ll go together. Whatever color I choose, I want you to help.”

It came as a whisper but landed like a roar.

“I wish we were going home together tonight,” Rick replied, not suggestive, not sexual, but tender. He pushed back in his chair when their plate of calories arrived and was set on the table between them. “Tell me where you’d like to spend our weekend away. I have people at the office I can boss around to do stuff for me. Maybe I can steal some time and start putting things together.”

Kate dipped a finger into the flower of whipped cream that adorned the cheesecake and kissed it between her lips.

“Still trying to impress me after all these months, I see. What a big shot you are--‘people at the office.’”

“Hey, let me get my fork in there, _Shania_. I’m just saying I’d rather do work for us than for Douchey McPrickdouche.”

She giggled at the reference--both of them. “I don’t know. I hadn’t really thought about it, yet. It would probably have to be somewhere close. I could always talk to my dad and see if we can use the cabin. I haven’t been up there in ages.” She brushed away a morsel that’d attached itself to Rick’s lip. “And, I have to admit, the idea of watching you try to cope with all that silence is kind of appealing.”

“Oh, we both know you’re never silent, Counselor.” He sucked in a breath like the juicy tangent his brain zipped away on gave him a second wind, and he carved out another bite. “I think the cabin’s a great idea. I’m easy, though. I think anywhere you are is a great idea. You tell me where and when, and I’ll be there.”

“Maybe we can put this to use before we go,” she said, dragging a fingertip across the envelope.

Rick closed his eyes, let the suggestion wash over him. “Excellent use,” he harmonized. “I know you’re overloaded right now, but would this weekend be too soon?”

Suddenly Kate didn’t care about the mountain of other things she had to do. Whatever it took, she was determined to make it happen.

**xxxx**

“I’m with Rick on this one, sweetie. I think it’s a fabulous idea,” Johanna bubbled at Kate from her neighboring bathtub. “I can’t believe how long it’s been since any of us have been up there to the house. Hopefully the place is still in one piece.”

The two tried their best to coordinate schedules and meet up at a local spa one night every few weeks for the 3 Ms: massage, mud bath, and manicure, and to use the couple of hours it gave them alone to catch up on life. Funny it was how Kate often seemed to walk out of the place as weary as she walked in. Her mother, loved as she was, had that effect.

“Yeah, he seemed excited about it last night. I felt bad, though. It was our anniversary and I didn’t get him anything.”

The second it came out of her mouth she regretted it.

“Katie, really?”

Kate’s eyes were shut and covered by a warm cloth, but she felt them flinch with the disapproving tone that was hurled at her. “Mom, this is a spa, not Yankee Stadium. Maybe turn it down a notch.”

“You remember everything, you always have. You forgot your anniversary?”

“No, it’s not… I didn’t forget. I just didn’t realize. I’ve been really busy with work, Mom, and it’s not like every couple celebrates five months.”

She didn’t have to see it to know Johanna had turned and was now staring her down.

“Forget a man. You might as well be married to that office of yours for all the time you spend there. Cases can’t keep you warm at night, Katie, remember that, and I really like this one. He’s so tall,” she remarked as though that spoke everything about a person’s character.

It made Kate smile, not only because of how sweet--albeit ridiculous--it was that her mother employed it as evidence, but also because it was the very word Rick had used to describe her when they’d first met on the Sullivan case, though then it’d merely been a substitute for another.

“I really like this one, too, Mom. More than that,” she added softly, sharing aloud something only Lanie had heard from her before, which was still true, it turned out, Johanna offering no acknowledgement of it. “I’m trying.”

“I’m sure you are, sweetie. Look, you have a key. You two go up to the cabin, have a good time. Your father will be thrilled.”

Kate removed the cloth from her eyes and sat up. “Thanks, Mom. You ready to get out?” She reached over the side of the tub for her slippers.

“You know, he and I have had some pretty memorable sex up there,” she said out of thin air and wholly proud, and Kate all at once wished she could sink back into the mud and disappear.

**xxxx**

They’d flipped a coin to decide who was going to drive for the weekend and Rick had won. Kate had feigned disappointment, but there hadn’t truly been any. The passenger seat of his Mercedes was far more comfortable than the driver’s seat of her car, so, really, she’d won, too.

The ride to the Catskills was just over two hours, with a stop for coffee and another for groceries tacked on, and they managed to make it to the cabin under the last bit of daylight. Anyone paying notice would never have imagined they were only spending a couple of days there. A Sherpa would’ve come in handy to help tote the absurd amount of food Rick had bought, though it wasn’t the Himalayas they’d be climbing, just the two steps from the lawn to the porch.

He pulled the car right up at Kate’s direction and killed the engine, flipped up his visor to get a first real look at the place with its charming red shingles, its oversize stone chimney, and the old milk can set out by the front door that’d been emblazoned with the Yankees logo.

“So, I guess I’ll see you in the morning, since it’ll probably take you all night to finish unloading all of this,” she needled, unbuckling her seatbelt. “I’ll go turn on the porch light for you.”

Rick curled his fingers around her arm when she pushed the door open and moved to climb out. “Get back here. If this is goodnight, where’s my goodnight kiss?” he asked playing into it. “Come on. There’s no one around. Make it good.”

Rare was a challenge Kate Beckett didn’t relish facing head-on. She also savored the warmth of his mouth on hers, so she gave and, in doing so, she got.

Had she been able to maneuver her body as she wanted, she would’ve taken him right there, because he was right. The real beauty of the place was the freedom bequeathed by its solitude, in it being for just the two of them alone.

Her itch would have to wait for the relief of his scratch, though. That was one cruel aspect to be marked in his car’s uncrowded “con” column: inadequate room to have proper sex in the driver’s seat. So, her kiss merely promised it--and soon--and they gathered up all they’d brought with them to head inside.

Rick followed behind, his enthusiasm like a bright halo encircling his body.

“Whoa, did you feel that?” he asked when he stepped onto the porch. “That board’s loose or something.” Kate paid little mind as she worked her key in the sticky lock. “If this was a cartoon, it would’ve sprung up and smacked me in the face” he muttered with amusement.

“Shit.” She flipped the light switch inside the front door and nothing happened. “My dad probably has spare bulbs somewhere. Let’s put this stuff down, and I’ll look.”

“You and I have had a lot of fun in the dark, so if you can’t find any, I’m fine with that,” Rick said following a deliberate inhale of air into his lungs. “It smells like damp wood in here. I’ve been to camp. Guess that still seems to be the rule for cabins.”

Kate walked on, carefully. It wasn’t bathed in complete darkness but nearly so, curtains pulled across the two modest windows in the living room they’d stepped into, and the only other source of light available was the standing lamp in the back corner.

“Little Ricky Castle went to camp?” she questioned with overt skepticism. “Was the concierge service in the woods to his liking?”

They made it to the kitchen without knocking anything or themselves over, and, thankfully, the overhead light there behaved without protest. Once all the bags were up on the counter and his arms were free, they were around her, wrapping her up.

“Yes, I went to camp, and I ate bugs and caught s’mores and everything.”

“You must be really hungry. You’re starting to say strange things.”

Rick turned his attention to her neck and sampled its perfumed skin. “I’m definitely hungry for you. You’re very distracting. You know how hard it is for me when you smell like this?”

Kate clutched a fistful of his hair when his tongue tickled her, sent her other hand sliding between them and down below his belt.

“I’d like to think it’s hard for me,” she countered. “It’s getting there, at least. How quickly do you think you can get this grocery store put away, so I can give you a tour of the bedroom?” Her eyes traveled the row of bags. “Imagine all the time we could’ve saved if we’d just stayed there for the weekend, instead.”

“You and that mouth of yours, Counselor. You and that mouth,” he echoed, but with an entirely different implication.


	3. Chapter 3

Neither could hear it over the sighs and the moans and the tap-tap-tap of the bed’s wooden frame against the wall as it rocked in tune with Rick’s thrusts, but it was happening there beneath them, and, unbeknownst to the two focused solely on the ambition of pleasure, they’d soon be meeting the aftereffect of their sexual frenzy.

Kate’s promised tour of the bedroom had been more an exploration of the mattress therein, and she’d guided him over every inch of it, every inch of her. All that remained was surrender, and how rigorously they were both fighting that inevitability, because the climb to its precipice had been so stunning in its rewards.

A pearl of Rick’s well-earned sweat landed atop Kate’s breast and traveled the arc of her body down to the sheets, a by-product of his exertion in concert with the heat of the modest room, which they’d managed to tick up considerably.

“I want to feel you come,” he whispered with what seemed like all the air that remained in his lungs. “I want to feel you.”

Kate’s knees clutched the bones of his hips like a vise when he accelerated his stroke and simultaneously swirled a finger over her. “You have… Keep doing that,” she implored him, the muscles he’d always been so enamored of burning as she tried to match his pace.

He gave more, though he had no more to give, and his arms began to tremble, the bed to wobble, its aged nails and screws weakening by the second, until, suddenly, there was a loud snap, and then came the crash as the entire frame hit the floor and broke apart.

The first sound that broke the ensuing silence of shock was laughter, hers, because what else was there to do but laugh?

“Holy shit,” Rick exclaimed in disbelief. “What the hell just happened?”

He was still inside of her and Kate was still wrapped around him. That’s how tightly she’d been holding on.

“I’m pretty sure your penis just broke the bed.” She reached up and cupped his cheek, reset his focus when he turned away to assess. “Don’t even think about going anywhere until you finish what I started.”

By a hand at the back of his neck, she propelled herself for his mouth that still hung open from the jolt and captured it, spurring him back into action, and though it’d been an intermission of but a moment, with her titillating urgency, he felt a profusion of energy.

“I love your body,” he panted once and then again, the tribute fading into a gasp as his weight came down over her. “Everything about your body.”

His skin was fevered, pressed against hers that was already so, but it didn’t bother. “My dad made this bed,” she said with a perceptible smile, her fingers twisting lazily in his hair. Then she remembered. “God, my mom would probably be proud.”

“Proud of my penis’s power?” Rick asked jokingly, his limbs hanging off the side of the mattress.

“I didn’t tell you what she said the other night at the spa. It was so horrifying I must’ve blocked it out.” He rolled onto his stomach, perched his curious chin at her breast. “We were talking about us coming up here for the weekend, and she chose to reveal--boastfully, I might add--that she and my dad have had great sex up here.” Her whole face scrunched up even repeating it.

He let his head dip again. “That sounds like something my mother would drop over a bowl of morning Bran Flakes. She probably has. Like you, I’m sure I’ve just blocked it out. Do you think we can fix this thing?”

Kate spit out a chuckle. “I think between the two of us, I’d have the best shot at it. You might be good for twisting open a jar or something, but the image of you strapping on a tool belt…”

“You wound me, Counselor.” He pinched her playfully above the knee and she jerked. “I’m quite adept at nailing things. I’ve seen the evidence you’ve presented.”

“Do you ever stop being a lawyer?” 

He popped up, gave her a sideways look. “At least I didn’t sneak work in my bag on our weekend away, unlike _some_ naked lawyer in this… what used to be a bed. I’m going to require a lot of that lawyer naked to make up for it, by the way.”

She had brought some work with her. That was true, but only because she hadn’t initially planned on the trip happening so soon, and in the midst of all the balls she had up in the air. But her mind couldn’t have been further from the office or her cases or any sort of work as she lay there with him.

She felt so light she could’ve danced on a cloud. She felt so safe, so happy, so alive with Rick beside her; she thought the words might spill out of her right there on that broken bed on that cabin floor. But then she heard it.

_Soon_, _maybe_ she thought, and caressed his skin as he slept. 

**xxxx**

Rick wasn’t out long and woke on his own, still in Kate’s arms and understandably hungry following their calorie burn. His body didn’t ache, but it’d certainly memorized all it’d seen that day and written it on his muscles, because there was a prickle--a delicious one.

“You wore me out,” he said in a stretch before he brushed his lips across her shoulder in thanks. “I’m sorry I fell asleep on you. Wait, is that… You’ve been working?”

Kate dropped the file to the floor. “You weren’t napping long, but you were napping hard. I figured I’d take advantage.”

“Jesus, you managed to get up and back in bed without me knowing it? You’re even more impressive than I already knew you were. What time is it?”

She leaned in, puckered in search of a kiss, which she found. “Time to eat something, at least it is for me. My stomach’s been screaming.”

Rick scooted down the mattress and put his ear to her belly. “Yep, you’re right. I can hear chants for pasta with veggies. Mine could go for that. I’m starving, too.” He sat up, moved to the edge. “Careful on the dismount. It’s a long way down,” he joked. “What a mess you made.”

“Play your pasta right and maybe we’ll try the other room later, see if we can make it two for two.” She got up and came around, stepping over mangled wood along the way. “Come on. We can both slice and dice. I want to check the shed in the back for firewood, too. It’s too late to get a fire going now, but for tomorrow. And, hey, if there isn’t any left in there, we can always burn the bed. No one’ll ever remember it was here. We’ll get away scot-free.”

He took the hand she offered, pushed himself up the rest of the way. “A beautiful lawyer with nefarious wilderness skills,” he said and grabbed his shirt from the floor, pulled it over his head. “I love a gifted woman,” she heard him mumble as he left the room, and it took her a minute to gather the breath to follow.

When she finally emerged, Rick was already in the kitchen grabbing things out of the refrigerator and laying them out on the counter in preparation. She paused at the back door and quietly watched him immersed in the simple task, and even from across the way, those kind, sapphire eyes of his had her heartbeat dancing.

“I’ll be right back,” she called to him and elicited a smile. “If you hear any shouting, it’s just me trying to frighten off the bears.”

He instantly slapped his palms down on the butcher block like he was bracing for a stiff wind. “Excuse me? You didn’t say anything about bears being here. I don’t do bears. Bears are _not_ vacation.”

“So, I guess you coming to my rescue is out.” She curled a smile of her own. “Relax, boil, chop.”

Gone for all of three minutes, she walked back in to find him moving toward the door with an empty pan in his hand. “Thank God you’re alive,” he deadpanned. Sarcasm, but only partially, in truth. 

Kate glanced at the pan, narrowed her eyes. “Your weapon of choice?”

“Well, it doesn’t seem like I’ll be able to use it for anything else. Only one of the burners on the stove is working, and barely.”

“What? Did you touch something?”

He took a dramatic step back, played offended. “Yeah, zucchini, tomatoes, and you. Any more questions for the witness, Counselor?” With a swoop of his arm, he cleared the way. “Go ahead, have at them. Take the knobs for a spin yourself.”

She went for the kitchen with him an inch behind, breathing down her neck, tried futilely several times to succeed at what he’d failed at.

“Shit, only one of them works,” she said and felt a tap on her shoulder. “I believed you,” she huffed without turning around. “I just... This is, like, the fifth thing since we got here.”

“I think I’ve seen this movie,” Rick commented of no constructive contribution.

“Does it end with a bear eating the couple?” Kate quipped.

“That’s not funny. Okay, so, it may take a while for it to do its thing, but I’ll get some water going and then we can sit and write out our wills, in case the end comes first. Oh, and there’s wine and cheese!”

Kate laughed, and that’d been the point, of course.

She spun and wrapped him up in her arms. “Five months, huh? How have I done it?” There was a kiss, and another--deeper--when one wasn’t enough. “How have you?” She was no picnic, she knew. Or, if she was, it was definitely one with ants.

Rick put the pan aside, tended to the wee sliver of wood he noticed had attached itself to her hair. “I’ve told you. I had no choice. Life made you for me. No one else fits.”

Her forehead drifted to his chest. She could’ve said the very same words if she was as good at them as he was, and they would’ve been just as true.

“Trying to butter me up so I’ll write you into my will, I see. Fat chance, Billboard Boy.”

“You wouldn’t let me buy butter, remember?”

Unseen, she rolled her eyes. He was so damn good at them.

**xxxx**

They sat on the sofa to eat where it was more comfortable, left the cushion between them unoccupied, but only because a howl from Rick had prompted the necessity, after he’d plopped down onto it and had his ass bitten by an errant spring in revenge.

“How is it?” Kate asked after swallowing a coil of linguine that’d nearly crossed the finish line to al dente.

“Honestly, I was so hungry, I probably could’ve eaten a shoe, but this is a fair substitute. Bonus: It only took an hour to make.”

“I meant your butt.” She arched a brow. “Did you and your wife cook when you were married?” It must’ve come from the recesses of her brain, because it really threw her a curve when it came out. Rick was likewise surprised, as evidenced by the look on his face. “I’m sorry. I don’t know why I asked that.”

He swiveled in the corner to face her. “There’s nothing to be sorry about. My marriage isn’t an off-limits topic. It never has been. You just haven’t…”

She hadn’t ever, and as she sat there, she wasn’t entirely sure whether or not it’d been a conscious decision. Maybe she’d been afraid of what she might hear, of rocking her own boat. Maybe it’d plucked a string of envy in her that he’d been to that place with someone else. Maybe she hadn’t wanted to risk hurting him by bringing up something painful.

She understood that brand of hurt.

“No, I guess I haven’t,” she replied reflectively. “Maybe I should be sorry for that, too.”

Rick reached out for her hand, tilted forward and nuzzled a kiss when she gave it.

“Sometimes we did, cook… but it was rare. My ex-wife and I spent more hours apart than we did together. I mean, we were both obsessed with our work.” He shook his head. “I don’t know. Maybe I just told myself that because it was easier to be at work than at home arguing. That’s actually what we spent most of our time doing. I guess that’s what happens when you marry someone you shouldn’t, and for the wrong reasons.”

Kate pushed her plate onto the table and tucked her feet up beneath her. “I think about what it might’ve been like if I hadn’t found out about the affair until after I was married.” There was meditation before she went on. “I wish you hadn’t had to go through what you did,” she said though they’d barely scratched the surface of it.

“What is it?” He saw something, something in her eyes he hadn’t seen before. “Ask me. Tell me.”

An odd amalgamation of hot and cold swept over body when she realized what she’d held inside for so long was about to be freed.

“I love you.” How effortless it sounded and wasn’t. “I do.” She wished to, but couldn’t in that moment articulate how much. She wondered if she’d ever be able to. “I’ve wanted to tell you for so long, but…”

Rick was still. He was so still, she nearly began to panic.

“Are you okay? You’re not moving. You’re not saying anything.”

He finally put up a finger. “Trust me. You obviously can’t hear it, but I’m screaming at my legs right now to make sure they’re still there because I cannot feel them.”

It took a minute for him to regain control over his body, but when he did, he practically tossed his food away and jumped up, grabbed her right along with him.

“Kate, this--now is the best time, the perfect time. And I love you, too, for even longer than so long.” He whispered again as he held her tight. “This is the perfect time.”


	4. Chapter 4

Rick woke alone that Saturday morning, and at an hour he deemed offensive to the very concept of the vacation. Two strikes against, and he didn’t even have feet on the ground yet.

Grouchy and groggy, he got himself up, fought for balance and thankfully won when a head rush attempted to complete the trifecta of unprovoked wrongs, and slid his feet into his sneakers without any consideration as to actual warrant for them. He didn’t know where Kate was, but she was the only thing in his mind blanketed with clouds that he could see clearly, so off he went in search.

The cabin was a modest one, and it didn’t take him long. He checked all five rooms, each of them empty, though she had been to the kitchen, he discovered, because he first caught a whiff of and then helped himself to a dose of the coffee she’d brewed. All that remained was the porch, and that’s exactly where he found her when he stole a peek through the half-moon of glass carved into the front door.

Kate turned over her shoulder when she heard him, greeted him with her eyes, and her softness stopped him cold.

“I have no doubt you’ll try to object when I say this, Counselor, but my view is even more beautiful than yours. This is the second time you’ve managed to sneak out of bed without me knowing it. A guy might start to wonder if you’re real or if you’re just some figment of his imagination.”

She parked her mug on the porch’s railing and came around, beckoned him with a tilt of her head. “You look ridiculous,” she remarked from the other side of the inch he left between them. “Lucky for you, I’m the only one that can see you out here, and sometimes ridiculous turns me on.”

Her breath smelled of coffee, and if only to help camouflage his own, which he assumed could probably use it, he downed a first sip.

“Is that so?” Now he was switched on, and carried an impressive smugness for a man who, not two minutes before, had resembled a walking zombie in his Ewok-embossed underwear and red sneaks. “And is now one of those times?” He crouched and set his mug on that same loose plank of wood he’d noticed upon their arrival.

For fun, Kate trailed her eyes to his lips. That always got him revved a bit. Her, too, if truths were being told.

“The jury’s still out on that,” she said, “but I’d be open to hearing arguments.”

Rick grabbed hold of either side of the blanket she had wrapped around her and pulled her firm against him. “Do you ever stop being a lawyer?”

She recognized the words immediately. “Touché,” she offered in compliment, and then kissed him deep and long--a cherry on the sundae.

“I didn’t like it when I woke up and you weren’t next to me.” His forehead rested against hers as air gently refilled their lungs. “Tell me last night really happened. Tell me it wasn’t just another dream.”

Kate opened her arms and gathered him into the blanket with her, her body, like his, all but bare beneath. “I love you. That’s real. I promise.” She kissed him again, that one tender, a murmur.

Behind her, the panorama began to come into full view with his heightened state, and he became swiftly mesmerized.

Across the yard, a band of fog hung at the gathering of pines, rendering them visible by only half, while a family of deer grazed at its edge, unfazed by the drizzle of rain. And, yes, it was the painting of it, the strokes of color and the texture that had Rick seduced, but more the stillness. Little was as jarring as the utter absence of something one was accustomed to, and though she’d assumed the hush would be an obstacle for him, in that moment, he found it blissful.

“This place is incredible. I never stopped to really look yesterday when we got in.” He moved to the railing for a more complete view, curled his fingers around its edge and leaned his weight forward against it. “And this weather is perfect for it, for the whole _moooo_\--”

It took seconds for it to happen, and then he was just on the wet grass below on his face.

“Rick!” Kate shouted and the deer scattered in the distance. “Oh my god!” She jumped the two steps to the lawn and ran to him, her blanket like a superhero’s cape. “Are you okay? Say something.”

He groaned but didn’t move. That was more for reason of embarrassment than injury.

She didn’t know what to touch or what not to touch, and it was probably her nerves, but there was a part of her that wanted to laugh over it. The Ewoks just looked so… stunned.

“Can you get up on your own? I can always run out to the road and try and flag someone. I’m sure a driver will stop if I--”

It was angled up on his chin, but he rotated his head her direction, his hair already beginning to droop across his brow from the rain.

“Don’t even think about it.” She was kidding, and he knew it. “I’m going to stand up now. I’m going to walk onto the porch that tried to kill me and get my coffee, and then I’m going to go inside where I’ll sit quietly and wait for you to bring me eggs for breakfast.”

“You’re going to sit quietly?” was Kate’s only commentary on the plan, and it came in a humorous flash.

Rick pushed himself up, his entire front speckled in bits of green and brown, drove his grassy fingers through his hair and out of his face.

“Maybe I’ll use the time to consider a lawsuit. Know any good attorneys you could recommend?”

She gave the length of him a once-over. He was absolutely fine.

“Do I know any good attorneys for ego injuries? I’m sure you must’ve met a few filming those fancy TV ads of yours. You guys share sets, don’t you?”

He turned on the balls of his feet, flexed out a deliberate hip, and started off.

“Scrambled, please,” he called from the porch, and Kate watched him stumble over the lip of the doorway and disappear inside.

**xxxx**

“So, I decided I’m not going to sue after all,” Rick informed when Kate handed him his plate of eggs and took her same spot on the sofa with her own.

“I’d ask why, but I’m sure it wouldn’t be necessary because you’ll just--”

“I realized that, uh, you still have a certain something in your bag that you haven’t modeled for me, yet, and it probably wouldn’t be wise for me to kick up a war with your father at this time.” He popped a grape. “Maybe I’ll revisit the idea when we get home.”

She didn’t even toss him a glance.

“You think you deserve the certain something I have in my bag after you broke my family’s porch?”

The second grape he nearly choked on.

“Oh, you just think you’re so funny, Counselor, sitting over there with those scrambled eggs of yours.” He slid some onto his fork. “They are good eggs, by the way. Take that, you one-burner bastard,” he hollered in the direction of the stove. “You can’t keep us down.”

“Now you look ridiculous _and _you sound ridiculous.” He hadn’t changed out of his boxers. He’d only run a towel over his head, which had left him looking adorably rumpled. “You could’ve taken those off, at least. They can’t be comfortable, and it’s not like we’re going anywhere.”

“Well, I didn’t want to be a huge distraction for you while you were cooking.”

“Gee, how selfless. And huge, huh? Sounds like that ego’s feeling better.”

“_Besides_,” he replied in the utmost mocking tone. “I enjoy it much more when you take them off me.”

Kate puffed out a giggle, but she enjoyed it more, too.

Sitting there, where they’d been the night before, where she’d confessed to him what she had, set off a buzz in her. It wasn’t the click before the coaster began its rumble down the first hill, but rather the glide back into the station, when fear faded into joy. That was the tingle of it.

“Later, lover boy. When we finish eating, I want to get the fireplace going. If you plan on walking around here all day wearing only those, you’re going to need the heat. I did find some wood out in the shed last night. In the dark it didn’t look like much, but it’d still be nice to put it to use.”

Rick extended his neck. “There’s no rug down in front of it over there. Where are we going to make out when you get it roaring? It can’t be here. This thing’s busted,” he said of the sofa before eyeing his palm. “I’m already pretty sure I got a splinter from that railing. I don’t want to add a puncture wound from a spring to the list.”

“First no bears and now no springs? You’re turning out to be less fun on vacation than I thought you’d be.” His lips pinched. “Fine, here’s a suggestion. How about we share a shower, which can include shampoo _and_ all the making out you want, and then we’ll start that thing up.”

With a steady nod, he hurried every bit of egg left on his plate into his mouth and swallowed. “That sou--”

“But,” Kate jumped back in, “once it is started up, you’re going to allow me to get some work done for a couple of hours.”

Lawyers bargained. And she was very skilled at it.

“Good thing I’m rich. That’s a hefty price I’ll have to pay.”

“Get out your checkbook. It’ll be worth it,” she retorted, cucumber cool.

**xxxx**

Rick slid aside the shower curtain and stepped into the tub a few minutes behind Kate, having offered to wash up the dishes from the breakfast she’d made. Her back was to him when he did, and it remained so, despite her recognizing he was there. That was deliberate. She knew what his eyes liked. He’d never been shy about it.

He drank her in like that first sweet sip of morning coffee. Savored.

“Feel better?” he asked after she dipped into the spray and straightened again.

Kate slid a half-step forward so he’d move in, raised her hands against the wall of old, pink tile in front of her. “I feel… happy,” she said, understanding the motive of the question didn’t require the thoughtful answer she gave.

He shuffled where she wanted him and let his fingers settle at her waist. There was no space left between their bodies. He saw to that.

“I’ve never felt this happy,” he bettered, not because he viewed it as some sort of a contest, but because it was the truth. “I love you so much, Kate,” he blew through her hair.

She turned to him then, slowly so he wouldn’t take his hands off of her, and so she could look into his eyes when she told him again.

“I love you, too.”

Their mouths met in the middle, soft at first, but as seconds turned into minutes, more and more insistent.

“God, I want to--There isn’t enough room in here.” He swiped the curve of her neck with his tongue and tasted the soap she’d already rubbed on her skin. “Let me taste the rest of you. Let me…” He dropped to a knee, but their eyes never broke. “Hold on to something. The rod,” he said and snickered because of how it sounded.

He reached around behind her knee and lifted her leg over his shoulder, granted his tongue the access it craved, and in its contact, Kate hissed his name with the ecstasy it instantly delivered.

Or so Rick thought.

“Rick, the water’s cold. It’s cold!”

She tried to lunge her body forward and clear of the stream using just her grip on the shower rod, but it and the curtain came crashing down around them in a heap of hard and soft plastic. She would’ve ended up on top of the pile had he not somehow managed to catch her in the chaos.

The tub was understandably slippery, and when he fumbled and the water got in a good blast of his bare skin, he yelped. “Whoa! Get out. Get out. I’ll…” He kicked a leg straight, hit the diverter on the spout with his toes to try to get the water redirected.

Kate wound a towel around her body, held out another for him when he managed to get it turned off.

“It was fine and then it was just freezing. I’m so sorry, Rick. I don’t know what happened.”

He climbed out, stepping over yet another mess in a growing line of messes, and swiped the towel out of her hand. “I don’t know, Kate. You may love me, but this house sure doesn’t seem to, and I know we’re only here until tomorrow, but that might be a day too late.”

When he draped his head and could no longer see her, her face erupted in a smile.


	5. Chapter 5

Rick’s nerve had been about as flimsy as his logic, but figuring the resident bears would probably be more likely to enjoy a meal of him under the cover of darkness than they would in the light of day, he’d volunteered to brave the trip--the trip of mere steps--out to the shed for firewood, supposing further Kate would find reason to be impressed by his valor, however feigned. She hadn’t, much to his dismay.

His face freckled with spits of rain, he came in through the back door with the small bundle he’d retrieved tucked beneath his arm, just as Kate was ending the call she’d finally decided to make.

In light of the host of failings their arrival at the cabin seemed to have been the inciting domino for, she’d thought it wise to reach out to her father, certainly before she began fiddling with the fireplace or, for all she knew, even just ended up looking at the damn thing wrong. It was prudence more than worry, though, or so she’d told herself.

At that point in the game, Rick had to agree. The place had it out for him. He was sure of it. The last thing he wanted was the woman he loved going at it with an open flame.

“Were you laughing?” he asked, kicking the door shut behind him and then his damp sneakers off on the mat. He’d heard it, knew she was, and his ego had always been one that didn’t well handle not being in on the joke.

“Yeah, why?” Kate followed him across the room, knelt beside him at the hearth. “You want to know if it was about you.” She plucked the log from his hand. “I can do the rest of this. I hate to burst your bubble, but you’re not the only thing I ever talk about.”

Rick stood up, brushed the bits of bark off the shirt he’d finally put on. “That’s a shame,” he mumbled with genuine disappointment. “You told him about his house of horrors? I know some excellent realtors, if he wants help trying to unload it.”

She gave him the corner of her eye. “Stop it. He’s not unloading anything. He’s had this cabin for decades. It just needs a little bit of work. He knows that now.”

Now Rick was the one laughing.

“Counselor, a little work is the floor could use a good polish, not be careful where you step because the floor might swallow you whole.”

How she’d fallen so hard and so fast for a man with all the toughness of a filled balloon still shocked Kate sometimes.

“Well, I guess we’re here. We’ve finally reached it.”

“Reached what?”

Kate clapped her hands clean of wood dust, spun and sat along the edge of the stone. “The moment you actually became more dramatic than your mother. This is the moment, and here I am, not even dressed for the occasion.”

Rick narrowed his eyes in umbrage when a worthy retort escaped him.

“Sure, well, you aren’t the one with the splinter jabbed into her flesh,” he countered, flashing his palm. “Splinters can send bacteria into a man’s bloodstream and kill him, I’ll have you know. I’m pretty sure being dramatic about the possibility of death is entirely normal.”

Her teeth slipped around her bottom lip and tugged. “Bring your hand over here, you big baby. I’ll kiss it for you and make it better.”

“Now that’s more like it,” he said and gave her a top-to-bottom peep. “Any chance you’d--”

“This offer has a clock,” she warned and all at once he was right there. Rising slowly to meet him, she took his hand in hers, pressed her lips to his palm, to the wound he insisted was there--the one she could see no actual evidence of. When satisfaction escaped his throat, she extended the exploration to his fingers and sucked one in, teased it with her tongue to a flutter of breath.

“So much better,” slid out on an exhale, low and husky, when she moved on to a second. By the time she worked her way around, he’d practically forgotten all about the alleged sting. Hell, he’d practically forgotten his own name.

“That should hold you over for a few hours while I do this and then get some work done. That was the deal, remember?” Pleased with herself, Kate disengaged and turned her focus back to the real task at hand.

No. If it happened more than a minute before, Rick remembered next to nothing at all.

**xxxx**

It was a thing Kate had done dozens of times before. She’d even considered it a treat when she was a kid, those chilly mountain days when her father would allow her the pleasure, silly as it seemed. Flipping the flue open now, though, she warmed with the nostalgia it brought.

She’d only found enough wood in the shed for, maybe, two rounds, and that there was moisture in it from sitting so long wouldn’t be of help, but she was nevertheless determined, and Rick anxious for the show he’d been relegated to the audience for.

“Don’t get me wrong when I say this.” He was perched in a chair a couple of feet away, and he was all grins. “I love the pencil skirts and the Louboutins, but I’ll take you in that over those any day.”

Nothing about the yoga pants and sweatshirt she’d put on warranted attention let alone celebration.

She knew precisely what he was up to.

Kate settled another log across her father’s antique andirons, acknowledged his two cents without granting her eye.

“Don’t think you and your sweet nothings over there are going to succeed in distracting me from reading through my case stuff. It’s been five months. I know how you operate, Mr. Smooth Talker.”

Match in hand, she drew it across the box’s striker and touched the flame to the old newspaper she’d crumpled as kindling, but it quickly suffocated.

“How cynical,” he sneered. “Need my help yet? That one didn’t go too well.”

“You’re helping by staying right where you are. The shed’s old. Water gets in there, that’s all.”

Her second effort appeared something more of a success, at least at first. Though by no means dramatic, it still showed her enough that Kate scooted back and let it try to do its thing without intervention for a minute or two. But, just as hope began to slide into satisfaction, there came a shift.

“Whoa, is it supposed to do that, with all the smoke and everything?” Rick asked, leaning forward against his knees like an umpire. All he had to do at the condo was flip a switch on the wall and instant flame was born. He knew nothing of an actual fireplace, except that the cloud drifting toward her didn’t seem… right, especially when she sprung backward on her toes.

“Seriously, were you, like, the worst camper ever? No, it is not supposed to do that.” She approached again, crabwise and nose blocked, flapping the air with her arm as she moved. “I opened it. It was the first thing I did,” she mumbled.

With any hint of dancing yellow and orange gone, she went again to the flue’s handle, turned it up and back multiple times, but she couldn’t possibly see for herself whether or not anything happened when she did.

Rick was going to feast on it, but she had to.

“Okay, now I need your help, please.”

Whatever was going on, he knew what it must’ve taken for her to ask, which was why he couldn’t resist turning the tables. “Yes, I see that. And I assume you’re willing to give up, say, forty-five minutes of lawyering for it,” he replied, sounding like he already had his feet kicked up and his hands folded behind his head in victory. “New deal’s on the table, Counselor.”

“Would you just get over here and take this. And bring my phone.”

If there’d been a decent amount of space between them, he would’ve skipped and whistled his way.

“You rang?” he ribbed over her shoulder, his fingers tickling beneath the hem of her sweatshirt. “Put me in, Smokey. What can I do?”

“I need to get in there. _Don’t_,” she admonished immediately following, correctly anticipating the colorful zinger he ended up swallowing back down. “I’m going to look up inside the chimney. When I tell you to, just turn this to the left and then back to the right, okay?”

Kate hit the flashlight on her phone and, on her knees, ducked beneath the lip of stone. “Left first, go,” she instructed Rick, the taste of smoke filling her mouth straight off. Nothing happened, to boot, and even with the aid of the light, all she saw was blackness. “Spin it to the right.”

Again, nothing.

“I don’t know if this matters or not,” Rick chimed in, “but I’m really enjoying the view from here. You’re doing great.”

She pulled back, bumped her head with a snarl when she did.

“How much do your clients fork over per hour for such shitty timing? Zip it and turn it again,” she barked and headed back in. “It must be stuck.” She was surprised to hear nothing in reply. No doubt he was still fixated on her ass. At least he was quiet. “Just try it a couple more times and then forget it. I’m not going to waste my time all day.”

“Your wish is my command, Counselor.”

That’s when they both heard it--whatever it was--and Kate simply couldn’t get out of the way fast enough.

Speckled with soot, she inched out of the fireplace, a huge mess of twigs and dead leaves in a pile at her knees. She coughed, drew a hand beneath her nose and left a black smudge.

“_Shit!_” Two sneezes escaped her, then three and one more.

“Okay, I know we’ve established I’m no expert, but I’m pretty positive it’s _not_ supposed to do that. What is that? Was there a bird’s nest in there?”

Kate sat, still, and not the lost-in-a-daydream-of-gumdrops-and-kittens kind of still. It was the other kind, the eerie kind.

“I guess better that kind of bird dropping than… never mind.”

Rick took the liberty and cut himself off, allowed her a moment to calm at the tail end of a second fit of sneezing, and then advanced. Sitting beside her, he reached over and tucked some loose hair around her ear, smiled softly at how impossible it was that a creature could be so adorable and so sexy at the same time, especially one sprinkled over with filth.

“You’re really living up to that name, Smokey.” They’d probably both reek of it for days, he imagined. “I’d go turn on the shower for you, but you already broke that.” He had to keep it light, mainly because, looking at her in that state, he couldn’t help but

She slowly turned her head in his direction, and a final sneeze flew out of her, one that surprised them both. “Tell me what you need… A Kleenex? More scrambled eggs? An industrial strength vacuum cleaner?”

Kate looked him square in the eye and said six words: “Get me out of this house.”

**xxxx**

It was almost orgasmic. That’s how incredible the hot water felt as it poured down over her, its stream mighty and unfailing.

Kate had been standing in the shower for nearly twenty minutes, long enough for clouds of steam to billow and spread, to fill the bathroom from end to end. And it wasn’t a small bathroom, either. There was no pink tile to be found, no plastic shower curtain, no possibility of impending disaster number… She’d lost count.

Rick had rescued them both, come through in spectacular fashion, finding them a suite at a spa in the area for the night, and though she’d just the day before cursed his Mercedes for its limitations, its WiFi hotspot had now more than made up for it.

“You know, I’ve never really been a fan of prunes, but looking at one again now, I might be a convert,” Rick remarked amusingly as he leaned a shoulder against the floor-to-ceiling wall of Calacatta marble and took her in. “You shooting for some kind of a record in here or what?”

“I’m not kidding.” She opened her eyes, found his. “This might be the single greatest experience of my life.”

Her body was bright, polished, scented, and impossible to tear his gaze away from, so he didn’t. “You’re my greatest experience. You always will be.”

She hadn’t stepped from the heat of the water in so long that when she finally did, goosebumps instantly invaded nearly every inch of her skin.

“You really do know how to talk, don’t you?” His arms enveloped her when she went to him, and she welcomed their warmth, their safety.

"I ordered some soup for us. It should be up in a little bit. Stay here, if you want.” He kissed the top of her head, came away with hints of mint and rosemary from her shampoo. “I’ll let you know when it gets here.”

Kate was hungry. That was certain. But it wasn’t a hunger for food.

“Call them back,” she told him. “Tell them to wait.”


	6. Chapter 6

There were times when Kate wanted nothing more than dessert, and that was an itch Rick had never objected to scratching.

But there was a time for yielding to such a craving, a fitting mood for it, an urgency born of collective mind and body circumstance, and as she stood there, naked and warm, with the fabric of plum-colored lace in her hand, following her shower of supreme indulgence and all that’d led to its necessity, she knew that definitely wasn’t the time for it.

She’d banished Rick to the other room to postpone their meal’s delivery, and to heighten even more the already elevated anticipation that’d been hanging over them for days. He’d been with her at the shop when she’d chosen the piece--the color ultimately more to his desire than hers, though there was no denying its beauty or its elegance--but he hadn’t seen the way it fit her body, how it kept secrets and let others slip. That pleasure she’d saved.

Clearing a section of the mirror fogged with steam, she combed through her wet hair and then ruffled it wild, droplets from its tips left snaking down the skin of her back absent intervention. Rick liked it when it was loose. She liked that his preference harmonized with her own. It wasn’t the only one.

Scented freshly with a fusion of rosemary and mint--the kindred lotion to her shampoo--she stepped into the bodysuit, surprisingly the first of its kind in her extensive collection of intimates.

It suited the curves and angles of her form as though it’d been crafted for her alone, its plunging décolleté laying bare the contour of her muscle as its scalloped edges united at a point with the satin band stitched around the waist, her lean arms accentuated by its benevolent cap sleeves. Of greatest enthrallment, she predicted, would surely be the cut of its thigh. Immodest was a word most apt.

Between the only two buttons sewn in to secure it, one behind her neck and one at her lower back, a cutout had her skin like exposed, and as she worked to fasten the pair, in the reflection of the bit of mirror she’d cleared, she caught her eyes smiling as she imagined the sensation of Rick’s fingertips trailing the unconcealed fields of both in exploration.

No man had ever touched her as he did. Not her mind, not her body, not her heart.

Kate suddenly heard his voice pass through the door. Not what was said, muffled as it was, but she felt its effect, nonetheless. That’s what he did to her. Even unseen, he had the power to pluck her string.

Moments later, she came out of the bathroom and peeked around the corner, found Rick sitting on the bed with his legs kicked up and his head buried in his phone. She gave her hair a final tousle as she watched him mumble to himself about some vexing thing or other, but whatever it was that had him knitting his brow, it titillated her to know that, by her hand, he’d soon forget all about it.

“Hey, hotshot,” she said and caused him to flinch with the startle. “What’s with the scrunched face? Wait, let me guess. How many times has mega-dick called you, so far?”

“A-hole,” Rick hissed. “About forty-se…” He finally picked his head up, lost the rest of the world completely when his eyes landed.

Neither moved a muscle for what felt like a silent eternity, until he tossed the phone aside, spun and dropped his legs over the edge of the bed. “Have you ever seen something you know is real, but because of how real it is, your brain can’t wrap itself around it? That’s what it feels like, seeing you right now.”

Kate flipped a switch on the wall and the overhead light in the room went dark, leaving just that of the bedside lamp. It seemed he’d also flipped a switch while she was in cleaning herself up.

“I put on this thing for you and you mock me in return?” She slid a glance toward the gas fireplace as it roared away in the corner, and then came back to him. “For that I should get my forty-five minutes of work back _plus _no complaints when I get up early tomorrow morning to go for a run.”

Rick snickered.

“What’re you going to do, Counselor? Are you planning on wearing that down to the gym? Your bluffing skills are what need work. You didn’t pack anything in that bag for any run, and I’m damn sure not letting you get out of this bed early. I paid for a late checkout, and we’re not leaving it a minute before for any reason.”

He reached an arm back over his shoulder and pulled off his tee. She already had him revved up and on his way to hard, and he hadn’t even touched her yet.

“Kate, the purple is… May I see the rest?”

His voice was sweet, patient, but Kate heard beyond it.

She rotated for him, paused deliberately at just the right point, which was truly what he’d asked for, after all.

“You have good taste, Mr. Billboard. I’ll give you that.”

Rick stood just long enough to unbutton his jeans, step free of them and what was beneath, and they eyed one another like delicious prey as he did. Like the heat of his stare had started up a faucet in her to a drip, Kate could feel her want of him begin to pool between her legs. The heat felt like fire.

There were volumes of words flying across the distance between them, yet none of them aloud. And then Rick’s lips slowly curled, and he spoke.

“Would you take it off now, please?” he asked and then tipped back on his hands in wait.

Kate collected her hair in hand, drew it all over one shoulder in grant of access, and felt the faucet drip once more.

“You don’t want to do it?” she answered coyly.

“I do, very much. But this time you wanted me to ask you to do it.”

And that was exactly why she hadn’t wanted to skip straight to dessert. That night she wanted the full meal of him--every course, every bite. It ruined her how profoundly he understood her. It was the most overwhelming, the most rewarding, and the sexiest goddamn intimacy of her life.

In silent compliance of what he’d astutely recognized as her own requisition, she made quick work of the two buttons and peeled off the bodysuit where she stood. And peeled she did, because the lace had lustily clung to her body like there was no greater place on Earth to be. From the expression on Rick’s face, he believed likewise.

“Now what?” he said. “Before you tell me, let me tell you that I could sit here and look at you over there like that all night and be the happiest and luckiest naked man alive.”

“Is that so?” she replied skeptically, nipping her lip. “Mockery _and_ lies from you, tonight. You sure know how to sweep a gal off her feet.”

“I know how to do a lot of things to a gal--one gal in particular. If she’d ever get that spectacular behind of hers over here, I’d be glad to remind her… with my tongue.”

Kate took four cat-like steps toward the bed, hitched her leg up and slid onto his lap, leaving her mark as she inched in close. Before another word left her mouth, she used it to capture his, the arrest deep and long.

“Now that I’m over here…” She angled for his neck, inhaled his scent and snuck a nibble. “Still feel happy and lucky?”

Rick held a hand secure at her back, stroked her slick center with the other--a sample, a tease. “I’d rather tell you how you feel,” he whispered when her pleading sigh faded into a hush. “You feel warm, and soft, and so wet.” Her fingers clutched at the skin at the back his neck with the ache of it, when he buried one of his inside her. “You feel ready for me, Counselor.”

It took just seconds before Kate’s hips began to roll into his touch, almost like a switch--Pavlovian, and when one became two, her pace hastened and her rocking deepened.

“Just... _Stay_… Just like that,” she breathed, barely audible though everything else about her was screaming because she could feel the orgasm climbing its way to the surface.

It was the caress of his thumb that finally did her in, his grin tickling her lips because he knew it would.

“Come on,” he spurred, hungry for the sensation of her freefall from the peak. “Let it go. Let me feel it with you.”

She did let go, with muscles that burned and a moan muffled by the skin of his shoulder.

“Are you glad you came?” Rick dropped in her ear with a smirk when she curled her arms around him and gave him her weight.

“If you’re able to do that from across a room, you should’ve told me. I would’ve stayed over there and read some notes at the desk at the same time, killed two birds.” She loosened her embrace, pulled back. “But I wonder if that’s what you meant.”

She didn’t wonder, at all.

Purposefully, Rick fell back onto the bed, carried Kate along with him. “Yeah, I’m a mystery like that.” He kissed her sweetly. “Have I told you how much I love your body?”

“Have I told you how much I love you?” she answered back.

“You may proceed, and, please, feel free to approach the witness to demonstrate.”

Using his chest as leverage, Kate pushed herself up, began a backward crawl down across his waist. “Oh, I plan on it,” she said and took him in her hand.

**xxxx**

Johanna gave her daughter a nudge with her elbow, directed her eyes across the room toward her friend, who was bopping along the Becketts’ wall of books like a band was playing on stage behind her. The following Saturday night’s gathering had brought Kate to her parents’ house alone, Rick otherwise work-engaged and unavailable to join her for the evening.

“I’m pretty sure Hillary’s already tipsy. Your father turned the music off when everyone else got here. That was twenty minutes ago and she’s still dancing.”

Kate popped a couple of olives and washed them down with a sip of chardonnay. “Don’t look at me. She’s your friend, Mom.”

“Excuse me, I’m not sure exactly what it is you’re implying, but I am looking at you, daughter of mine, because you said Rick was going to be here and he isn’t. She cancelled Bridge with the ladies from the club for him. She’s probably going to be drowning her sorrows in booze all night, end up passed out on the couch.”

“Better her than you,” Kate retorted. “We all know how you get.”

“Got that right,” Jim seconded, sneaking up behind the two. He kissed Kate on the top of her head. “I’m happy to see you, Katie, and in one piece. These things are always more fun when you’re here.”

“You too, Dad. So, have you decided, yet, when you’re going up to the cabin?” she asked returning to his offhand remark. “You’ll have to let me know, so I can come by beforehand and give you a last hug, just in case.”

Johanna took Jim’s glass from his hand and filled it to half with his favorite red. “Our daughter’s being a smart aleck, tonight.”

Without turning, Kate lifted her glass up over her shoulder, and her mother topped it off, too. “Look, I don’t know what the heck I ever did to you, but your house almost killed me last weekend.”

“You mean besides the nineteen hours of labor?” her mother gibed and Jim blew out a laugh.

“Okay, mothers should only get to use that, like, four times. Besides, you weren’t there. I’m definitely entitled to a few jabs here. You’re just lucky Rick couldn’t be here tonight. With that mouth of his, he wouldn’t have shut up about it.”

The mere mention of it sparked the image of his mouth in Kate’s mind, and the whole host of things it regularly did to her, including on the floor of her closet before she’d left the house earlier. Definitely things she shouldn’t be thinking about in the company of her parents.

“I’m really sorry, kid,” Jim said, sincere in it despite the amusement that still lingered from his wife’s quip. “I’ll get up there soon, and I’ll take care of everything. After I do, you two can try your weekend again.” He and Johanna fixed eyes on one another, a gaze impossible for Kate to miss. “Your mom and I even have a new bed all picked out.”

He grabbed his wine and walked off, left the ladies alone and Kate curious.

“What was that? What was that look about?”

Johanna leaned in, and with that same glowing pride in her voice Kate had not long ago been horrified to hear said, “We broke that bed once, too.”

XX


End file.
